Dungeon Builder and Openzone put to work!

[killspree]

So last night and this morning I started tinkering with a dungeon and now(other than objects and a few tweaks), I'm just about done with it. I decided I'd show off some screenshots and show how excellent the dungeon builder and openzone tools are. This zone will be used on Evertorn when it's finally ready to be unlocked as a mid to high level dungeon.

First screenshot: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon1.jpg

Here you can see quite a few objects that you can place, ranging from geometry to walls to a staircase.

Second:
http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon2.jpg

A closer look at the staircase - I chose the spiral case for this to give the area a bit of flavor and make the climb up top a bit more of a challenge(this is the main boss room).

Third: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon3.jpg

This room is what I'm refering to as the prison, as you can see from the cells in the background(granted no doors yet :P). This room makes use of the lighting effect and is an excellent example of how openzone can help you place dynamic lighting to brighten specific areas up.

Fourth: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon4.jpg
Fifth: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon5.jpg

A few more shots showcasing the lighting effects openzone can place.

Sixth: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon6.jpg

Perfect example of how dungeon builder allows you to move rooms and corridors up/down on the z-axis of the grid. This corridor is a steep downward slope leading to a room I'd like to call the sacrificial chamber.

Seventh: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon7.jpg

Here's an example of how you can place walls and even elect to put a door within the wall - openzone does all the work, you just set the size of the door hole and you're off.

Eighth: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon8.jpg

Another example of lightning - this time in the sacrificial chamber.

Ninth: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon9.jpg

And here's a little bit of everything in this shot. Dynamic lighting, objects(stairs), geometry(cylindars), and the ability to make an object you placed semi-transparent or even fully transparent.

Tenth: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon11.jpg
Eleventh: http://home.earthlink.net/~kcv11281/dungeon/dungeon12.jpg

And a couple overhead shots. Yes, I had to take two because of the length of the corridor leading to the sacrificial chamber!

That's it, I hope this helps give everyone a basic idea of what these programs can do. I highly recommend downloading them if you haven't already!

[Xabob]

WoW man very nice Haha maybe we will have are own Exspations

[killspree]

Oh a little background on the zone so everyone understands why I used these texture palletes. This zone is basically a temple erected by orcs that worship the god of death, Kandros the Devourer. So that's why it has a very marble/tile type theme.

[Shadow-Wolf]

I too am working on a dungeon using OpenZone and dungeon builder but it will be a while before i reveil it to the public =)

and since your posting i might as well give a little C&C.
the textures don't seem to well....they dont seem to go good in a theme, if its a temple try and make the marble a bit darker and if the walls gunna be marble why not make the floor stone. with all those different textures that are mixed together it actualy looks like an eye sore =/.

[killspree]

Yeah, I'm probably going to be redoing the textures some. Keep in mind this was something I threw together in a few hours and wanted to show off to hopefully get more folks interested in using these tools.

[Xan]

Ok so I decided to experiment a little and work with OpenZone...and GTK Radiant, and this is what i ended up with: http://www.angelfire.com/linux/xan0/index.html
I used anglefire to store all the images and just decided to put the "presentation" on there as well...enjoy :P

[Wumpas]

Impressive xan, I'm amazed at the geometric complexity you were able to obtain.

I think I'm going to check out GTK Radiant, never herd of it until today. :D

[KhaN]

Im glad more peoples start to make their "custom" zones, there are still a lot more work to do Killspree but its nice for a first try, continu the good work :)

Xan ... go back to work :p

[Shadow-Wolf]

oooh im gunna have to check out radiant too, maybe I can do a better job of my project on there....

[KhaN]

I personally dont recommand Radiant, even if its a "ok" software to do your zone geometry, instead like Dungeon Builder, you will have all your UWMapping to redo, which is, lets say a damn huge work if you have heavy detailled zoes, Xan know the feeling trust me ;p

[Shadow-Wolf]

Heh its not UVMapping im worried about, its not too hard to unwrap simple rooms, now detailed character models with ALOT of polies are hard to unwrap, i dont care what others say thats just the hardest. Besides Dungeonmaker doesn't do a real good jop of mapping itself all my roofs seem to lide to the right and get cut off.

[Windcatcher]

Are you holding the shift key down to move room ceilings up or down instead of left or right?

[sotonin]

Cool zone idea, But i'd have to agree with the previous poster on the textures.

They do not go well and i wouldn't spend 5 minutes staring at these textures in game before #zone'ing out.

[Shadow-Wolf]

yeah im sure wind, I will still be using dungeon zone for some of my zones though.

[Xan]

I personally dont recommand Radiant, even if its a "ok" software to do your zone geometry, instead like Dungeon Builder, you will have all your UWMapping to redo, which is, lets say a damn huge work if you have heavy detailled zoes, Xan know the feeling trust me ;p

Yeah its kind of a pain in the ass to remap everything but i suppose if you did it right the first time instead of screwin it up the first few times like i did its not all that hard. I personally like GTK Radiant a lot just because its something I know how to work with but you have to convert the .bsp that Radiant makes for q3 into vrml with a little converter http://home.snafu.de/hg/vrml/q3bsp/q3bsp.html

Its something to try if you are having trouble with complex geometry if you dont know max very well, GTK Radiant is a little esier to lear and there are tutorials everywhere for it but it is designed for Quake 3 level editing so you might have to mess with it some to get what you want. I guess I could write out a tutorial or something if more people become interested.

[cofruben]

we could make a new "expansion",is anyone interested?we would need to make a good team and code it.

[Shadow-Wolf]

Yes please do write a tutorial, right now im working on a temple-like dungeon, its easy to use for me cause im used to the UT editor wich is kinda like it with a few differences. If i can get a good host ill put up some pics of it..

[Xan]

http://www.angelfire.com/linux/xan0/q3-eq.html

There is a quick tutorial that covers just the process of how to do it. I didnt mention much on how to use Radiant because i provided linkes to better tutorials specificly for Radiant. I guess if you got any other questions post em up and i'll see what i can do.

[Shadow-Wolf]

Nice tutorial, all i gotta do now is just finnish my work =)

[Xan]

Im interested to see what your work looks like Shadow-Wolf, so I have an idea of what the compition looks like :P post some screens when ya can

[Shadow-Wolf]

I dont have a way to host my work or images so it will be a while, plus I dont have 3dsmax anymore so i cant convert it yet. You dont have much competition, The whole dungeon is made out of one texture rofl,
Its has currently 19 rooms, one of them is a huge sphere with a bridge leading to 2 different rooms. I must admit though to me it looks pretty damn sweet although its made with one texture....

[killspree]

we could make a new "expansion",is anyone interested?we would need to make a good team and code it.

I could offer help with content design. I'll be the first to admit that zone design isn't my best area currently.

[KhaN]

There is no way actually to do an expansion, before do an ewpansion, you would have to do a new client, or hardcore zoneproxy to eqemu so all would be able to use the expansion.

Also for me, what is needed for EQ isnt really expansion, but more an old wolrd zones redesign.

[killspree]

Yeah I agree that there isn't really need for an expansion with the number of zones. It would be something to think about though if the freaku client is completed and released.

[killspree]

Hey xan, I have a question. I did all the importing from q3 format to vrml etc, and the floor of my zone extends places where it actually isn't...which makes it hard for me to put in areas lower than other areas of the zone. Any idea what's causing it?